


A Small Excursion

by OrderOfRevan



Series: Canonverse Thrawn Stories [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Rebellion Era - All Media Types
Genre: Background story, Character Study, Explaining the Cloak and Sunglasses, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-04
Updated: 2017-05-04
Packaged: 2018-10-27 23:15:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10818783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OrderOfRevan/pseuds/OrderOfRevan
Summary: Thrawn asks Eli to come with him to a shopping center.Eli examines his superior officer's motivations.





	A Small Excursion

**Author's Note:**

> I told you that I would do it, and here it is. 
> 
> I'm sorry. I don't think it's very funny, but I hope you enjoy it anyway.

Eli had never been to such a lavish shopping district in his life, but it didn’t surprise him that Thrawn had brought him here. It made sense that Thrawn would shop for convenience while they were on Coruscant, and for someone who spent most of his time on the planet in the richer sectors of the city, it was only natural. 

It didn’t stop him from feeling out of place, though. 

There were one thousand shops in the tall building, possibly more, and people were bustling in between all of them, bright and well-dressed, nearly all of them humans. Eli had never seen such a display in his entire life, but it was probably something he should have expected, considering that Coruscant was a planet-sized mega city. 

For someone from Lysatra, though, it was an impressive display. 

He doubted he would ever be used to it. 

And he still thought he was more used to all of it than Thrawn was. 

Cautiously, he glanced to his side, watching his commanding officer look around as if scanning the room for potential enemies or developing a plan of attack. For all Eli knew, that was exactly what he was doing, though a shopping excursion wasn’t exactly a combat situation. 

He wondered vaguely if the Chiss bothered to make the distinction, or if they had shopping centers like this one at all. 

From the look on Thrawn’s face, he was willing to guess they didn’t. 

“Tell me, Ensign Vanto,” Thrawn said suddenly, voice calm as it always was, “where is the best place to begin one’s shopping trip?” 

“Well, that depends on what you’re shopping for, sir,” Eli said, searching Thrawn’s face for answers, but finding very little there except maybe curiosity and the vaguest hint of frustration. “All these stores sell different things.” 

Thrawn nodded, lips pressed together in a thin line, though he didn’t immediately speak. 

To Eli, it seemed like he was thinking about just how much he should say, making him wonder just what exactly Thrawn had gotten himself into  _ this  _ time. It wasn’t really Thrawn’s fault, but trouble still followed the Chiss like he was a magnet with its opposite polarity. 

“I require a -- ” Thrawn paused and seemed to think, “ _ Kafohlwi _ .” 

“Disguise, sir?” Eli asked, wondering why in the world Thrawn would need a disguise, but figuring it best he didn’t ask. 

It might have to do with the Emperor, after all. 

“Yes,” Thrawn confirmed. “A disguise. Thank you, Ensign Vanto.” 

“You’re welcome, sir,” he replied, then sighed heavily, scanning the floor they were on for any clothing stores, probably the cheaper the better. “What kind of clothes were you thinking?” 

“Something simple,” said Thrawn, taking a step forward so that he stood directly be Eli’s side, looking out over the store like some ancient king gazing over his court, possessing more dignity than anyone in a shopping center had the right to. “I also require cover for my eyes.” 

“Right,” Eli muttered, nodding. “That makes sense. Guess you wouldn’t want anyone to see those. They’re you’re most distinctive feature.” He sighed, knowing that he wouldn't be able to enjoy his own shore leave until he helped Thrawn with preparation for whatever top secret meeting he had to go to. “Well, I guess you could always buy a pair of sunglasses, sir.” 

“Sunglasses?” Thrawn asked, and Eli sighed heavily, motioning for his commanding officer to follow, lamenting the fact that he had to be the one to lead in such an unfamiliar environment, though it was already clear Thrawn had asked him here for a reason. 

“You know,” Eli said, motioning to his face as the maneuvered through a crowd of people, feeling odd spending time with Thrawn while dressed in his civies. “You wear them on your eyes? They protect them from UV radiation and glare?” 

“Ah.” Thrawn nodded. “Yes, we have something similar, though we do not call them sunglasses. I believe my people may actually have a higher sensitivity to light than yours do, so they are quite a bit more common than they appear to be here.” 

Thrawn gestured vaguely around him, and indeed, he didn’t really notice too many people wearing sunglasses at the moment. Of course, it was indoors, so it didn’t really make much sense for them to be wearing anything on their eyes that wasn’t either decorative or had a clinical purpose. Were the Chiss really so sensitive to light that they wore eye protection that often?

Eli guessed it made some sense, with being able to see in infrared and all, light had to hurt sometimes. 

“Well,” Eli said, stepping into a small, trendy kind of store that sold slightly second hand things to rich city goers, “my guesses would be you want some kind of cloak to go with those sunglasses. Something simple so maybe you just look like you came in from outside and are keeping it on because you’re cold.” 

Amusement flicked across Thrawn’s features, and Eli found himself wondering if Thrawn would enlighten him to the nature of the joke when he walked over to a rack of heavy, single color cloaks and started quietly browsing. 

“I would be very difficult for me to get cold here,” he said after a long enough lapse in time that it took Eli a minute to process what he was referring to. “This planet is quite temperate.” 

“Well don’t let anyone you’re meeting know that and you’ll be fine,” Eli said with another sigh and shrug, watching the rather civilian looking Thrawn browse through cloaks. 

It was so normal looking that it was actually funny, though Eli would never admit that to Thrawn. 

For a moment, it was quiet again, and Eli slipped into his thoughts. He didn’t always mind having to wait while Thrawn went through the things he went through, especially since it got him off duty for a bit. 

He liked the work he did, which meant he liked watching Thrawn in spite of whatever other tedium military life brought him, but it was easier to forget that his troubles when he wasn’t actually wearing his rank badge. 

Something about not having the reminder that he was still an Ensign constantly pinned to his chest. 

He wondered, though, what Thrawn did when they were shored up. 

Eli knew he had a residence somewhere on Coruscant where he could be reached by comm, but he’d never been there. Somehow, he’d always had a hard time imagining Thrawn doing normal things, like going out to eat or shopping for clothing, or even just going to one of the military bars for a drink or two. 

He didn’t really seem the sort to socialize normally. 

Even looking at him going through clothing on a rack in a second hand store, surrounded by trendy looking women who probably sewed or altered half their own wardrobes, it still seemed a bit impossible, like Eli had to be dreaming. 

In fact, he wasn’t completely sure this  _ wasn’t _ a dream. 

“Have you ever done anything like this before, sir?” Eli asked quietly, watching Thrawn break his intense eye contact with the discount rack for just a moment, his glowing red eyes sliding up to meet Eli’s. 

Thrawn arched an eyebrow at him, a subtle hint of confusion in the action, just enough that it made Eli curious to push for further details. 

“You know, sir,” Eli said, motioning casually about them. “Something like this. Shopping. Spending the day with  _ normal _ people, doing  _ normal _ people things?”

“This is normal for your species,” Thrawn replied simply, turning his attention back to the clothing, though what he was searching for in his thorough examination of each cloak, Eli couldn’t say. “Chiss do not have such centers of commerce. Our needs are provided for us, and that includes clothing.” 

It took Eli a moment to fully process the words.

When he did, his brow furrowed, and he rubbed the back of his neck, looking at Thrawn like he had grown a pair of horns. “What? Really? You don’t… buy things?” Eli watched Thrawn, who peered up at him again, nodding nearly imperceptibly. “Huh. That’s definitely… A thing.” 

There was another pause, and Eli sighed, looking briefly around the small shop, noting the stray glances the two of them were getting. It was the first time they’d ever gone out together off duty, Eli thought, and it made him wonder if Thrawn always got looks like this when he went out.

It wouldn’t surprise him.

He was the sole alien in this entire place. 

Management even had a droid manning the register, probably taking up a job that someone else could have used. 

“Chiss attend parties,” Thrawn explained, his voice interrupting Eli’s thoughts. “Commoner Chiss pool their resources and sometimes hold small feasts in their neighborhoods. In order to entertain ourselves, we socialize and play games.” 

Eli watched Thrawn, who continued speaking, not looking up from his careful inspection of the cloaks. 

“Upon occasion, a festival would be held, and the Ruling Families would ensure that there would be plenty of special refreshment and entertainment, even amongst the colonies,” the explanation was simple, but Eli could sense the experience behind the words; Thrawn had lived this, and finally, Eli could see a bit of the truth behind the legends, people where there were only myths before.

“We worked because it brought our lives purpose, and because the work we did made such things possible,” said Thrawn as he finally drew up to his full height, a simple, black cloak in hand. “I think this should be sufficient for my purposes.” 

Eli nodded, deciding not to further comment on Chiss culture. 

He felt like he’d learn something, and found that sometimes if he pushed Thrawn too hard to talk about these kinds of things, he’d back off hard on them for awhile. As odd as Thrawn’s life experiences could be sometimes, Eli enjoyed hearing about them, so instead he decided to ask something different, something else he’d been curious about.

“What exactly were you looking for, sir?” 

“A cloak with a sufficient amount of wear,” Thrawn replied simply as they walked toward the counter together, Thrawn’s steps as measured and confident as they always were, even in the middle of a secondhand store. “I need it to look as though I’ve owned the cloak long enough to have traveled in it to a passerby. It will make them less likely to look at me than if the cloak is either new or threadbare.” 

Eli nodded.

That made perfect sense. 

You didn’t really look at the average looking cloak in a crowd of cloaked people, only those who looked too rich or too poor. If you were in the middle, you’d probably go unnoticed by most people, even if you were wearing sunglasses over your glowing red eyes. 

As they approached the counter at last, it occurred to Eli to ask something else, glancing toward Thrawn, who was looking at him expectantly. 

“One last thing, sir.”

“Yes, Ensign Vanto?” Thrawn replied perfectly politely, standing with the cloak folded gingerly over his crossed arms. 

“What am I doing here?” Eli asked, watching Thrawn’s eyes flash as they sometimes did when Eli asked the “right” questions. 

“I require you to pay for my selections, Ensign Vanto,” Thrawn said simply, and Eli suppressed a groan -- He should have figured! “I understand that this could be considered bothersome, but this disguise could have a positive impact on the both of us, should my suspicions serve correct.” 

He figured Thrawn probably didn’t want these purchases traced directly back to him if things went wrong, and, well, this was just another sign that Thrawn trusted him, he supposed, but it was still a pain. 

It wasn’t like it was that expensive, anyway, he reminded himself. 

Eli sighed resignedly and stepped up to the Droid, motioning to the cloak and handing the machine his credit chip.

The transaction was over in moments. 

Eli turned, pointing a finger at Thrawn, a sharp frown on his features. “You’re paying me back for this, sir” he paused, his eyes narrowing. “And buying me lunch.” 

They were off duty, after all

He felt like making a few demands of his superior officer was reasonable, given the circumstances. 

Thrawn only looked coolly amused, for his part and to his credit. 

“Of course, Ensign Vanto,” he said smoothly, the barest hint of a smile turning up the edges of his mouth. “It is only fair.” 

Feeling satisfied, Eli turned around then paused, looking back over his shoulder at Thrawn. “Come on,” he said, motioning with his hand for Thrawn to follow, “let’s go buy you some sunglasses.” 

The expression of amusement still on his face, Thrawn trailed after him, cloak still draped over his arms. 


End file.
